Workington Travel Study Report for Cumbria County Council
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Workington Travel Study Report for Cumbria County Council by the Institute of Transport and Tourism, University of Central Lancashire October 2010 Workington Travel Study Cumbria County Council Workington Travel Study Commissioned by Cumbria County Council Institute of Transport and Tourism University of Central Lancashire December 2010 Report Author: Jo Guiver Assisted by: Nicholas Davies, Research Assistant Chris Jones, Surveyor Institute of Transport and Tourism University of Central Lancashire Workington Travel Study Cumbria County Council Executive Summary The floods of November 20th 2009 destroyed or damaged four of the five bridges across the River Derwent at Workington, severing road and pedestrian access. Papcastle Bridge near Cockermouth, the closest road river crossing which involved a long detour, became a bottleneck with long delays for traffic in both directions. Many agencies worked hard to improve the situation and within ten days a temporary station had been built and a free train shuttle service instigated to make use of the remaining bridge. The army erected a footbridge in early December and provision was made for a shuttle bus between settlements on the north of the river, the new station and the footbridge. Thus, between December and April, there was an unusual situation with car journeys between the north and south of the area necessitating a long detour with considerable delays, while the half-hourly train service was free to use and pedestrian access was relatively easy. Cumbria County Council commissioned the Institute of Transport and Tourism of University of Central Lancashire to research the impact this had made on people’s travel. A household survey gave data on 435 people’s travel patterns for typical weeks in October 2009, before the floods, March 2010 while road access was difficult and May 2010 once the temporary road bridge had been opened. The survey found that the number of trips for all purposes had reduced in March and although it had risen again in May, it had not reached the previous levels. Leisure and social trips were the most reduced, partly because of the extra time needed for other travel. Shopping trips reduced and often changed destination and work trips showed most propensity for mode change. Although respondents’ car trips fell by nearly a half, the majority of trips were still made by car. Train travel increased by over 500% and although it dropped in May there were still more trips made by train in May than in October. The consequences of the new travel situation ranged from enjoying the physical exercise and sociability of walking across the temporary foot bridge to feelings of isolation, worry about elderly relations on the other side of the river and, for some, the loss of a job or earnings and severe stress. Household duties could be re-allocated to accommodate different schedules and longer travel times. Most respondents recognised the efforts made by Cumbria County Council and other agencies, although officers themselves worried about the impact of the emergency on other aspects of their responsibilities. Interviews with key stakeholders demonstrated how it was not just travellers adjusting to a new geography around Workington. Several employers redeployed staff so they could work on the side of the river where they lived to avoid a long commute. Services were provided in the north of the area: supermarket, mobile bank, doctors’ surgeries, while other public services (Police, Fire and Ambulance Services) re- aligned their administrative boundaries or practices to adjust to the new situation. The findings suggest there is an ability to change travel patterns when circumstances change, but there remains a high car dependence, even when the alternatives are cheaper and more convenient. Institute of Transport and Tourism University of Central Lancashire 16 Workington Travel Study Cumbria County Council Acknowledgements The Institute of Transport and Tourism would like to thank the following for their help in compiling this report: Andrew Harper, Senior Transport Policy Officer for Cumbria County Council who commissioned this research, Laurence Hilland, Community Rail Officer: Chris Cutts, Station Manager for the Cumbrian Coast Line and Kathryn O’Brien, Head of Stations and External Relations of Northern Rail: Jean Griffiths of Cumbria Libraries, Inspector Mark Wear and Stan Rothery of Cumbria Constabulary: Bill Pennington, manager of Workington Job Centre: Steve McDowell of Stagecoach: Jane Little, Practice Manager of Solway Health Centre: Caroline Ivison and Paul Crute of Workington Times and Star: Ian Grainger, Vicar of Seaton: John Bailey of Derwent Book Shop: Kelly, Deputy Manager of Workington Tesco’s: Keith Opie, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, Ralph Palmer, Operations Manager, Ambulance Service in West Cumbria and Cumbria County Council’s officers: Andrew Butler, Area Engineer, Cheryl Cowperthwaite, Public Transport Officer, Gill Copsey and Hayley Sampson, School Transport Officers as well as the many other residents and workers in Workington who answered our questions, distributed and completed survey forms. A special thanks goes to Liz Watts of Lancashire Business School who transcribed the comments from the survey. The picture of the fallen Northside Bridge Workington on the front cover was taken by Andy V Byers and published in Wikipedia (Andy V Byers at en.wikipedia) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Northside_Bridge,_Workington-1.JPG ) and is reproduced under their conditions. Similarly, the map of Workington Bridges was copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Workington_bridge_damage.png and was contributed by OpenStreetMap contributors and PeterEastern (talk) 20:53, 27 November 2009 (UTC). (PeterEastern at en.wikipedia). Both are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. The picture of the temporary Tescos store is by Johnson Group http://www.johnsonconstruction.co.uk/cs_workington_tesco.php Other Photographs were taken by the author. Institute of Transport and Tourism University of Central Lancashire 17 Workington Travel Study Cumbria County Council Table of Contents Section Page Executive Summary i Acknowledgements ii Table of Contents iii Table of Figures iv 1 Introduction 1 2 Context 2 3 Methodology 12 4 Respondents 14 5 Travel Patterns 16 6 Opinions and Attitudes 25 7 Comments on Survey Forms 27 8 Interviews 36 9 Conclusions 43 Appendices 46 1 Questionnaire 47 2 Journeys by Mode and Purpose for each Survey Period 49 3 Full List of Comments 50 Institute of Transport and Tourism University of Central Lancashire 18 Workington Travel Study Cumbria County Council Table of Figures Number Figure Page 2:1 Northside Bridge on 20th November 3 2:2 Remains of Northside Bridge seen from Train 3 2:3 Remains of Navvies Footbridge June 2010 3 2:4 Workington North Station 4 2:5 Trains at Workington North Temporary Station 4 2:6 Map of Workington 5 2:7 Timeline of significant events 6 2:8 Calva Bridge showing flood damage 7 2:9 Damage to Calva Bridge 7 2:10 Temporary Foot Bridge from South 8 2:11 Bus stop and turning area on south of Footbridge 8 2:12 Pedestrian and cyclist using temporary footbridge 9 2:13 Bus stop on north side of temporary footbridge 9 2:14 Workington North closes 10 2:15 New one way system on Northside Road 10 2:16 Cyclist and traffic using temporary road bridge 11 2:17 New Road Layout on north side of river 11 4:1 Age and Gender Profile of Respondents and Residents 14 4:2 Age Profile of Respondents 14 4:3 Number of vehicles owned by households 15 5:1 Modal Split in October 2009 16 5:2 Journey Purpose Distribution October 2009 16 5:3 Modal Split in March 2010 17 5:4 Journey Purpose Distribution March 2010 17 5:5 Modal Split in May 2010 18 5:6 Journey Purpose Distribution May 2010 18 5:7 Changes in the numbers of Trips by Journey Purpose 19 5:8 Changes in Destination 19 5:9 People changing their Travel Patterns 20 5:10 People’s Main Mode for Work Trips 21 5:11 Changes made by Car Commuters 22 5:12 Modes used in May by Car Commuters who changed mode in March 22 5:13 People’s Shopping Modes 23 6:1 Opinions about travel changes while bridges were closed 25 6:2 Opinions about Travel in May 2010 and role of Cumbria County Council 26 9:1 Tesco’s Workington Store seen from Northside 44 Institute of Transport and Tourism University of Central Lancashire 19 Workington Travel Study Cumbria County Council Introduction This research was commissioned by Cumbria County Council to investigate how people in Workington changed their travel patterns while road connections across the River Derwent were severed after the floods of November 20th 2009. Through a household survey and interviews with residents and other stakeholders, the research examined how people adjusted their travel while the only road access between the north and south of the town was via a heavily congested 18-mile detour. It also investigated the impact on their travel patterns of the opening of the temporary road bridge in April 2010. The research is of importance, not only to evaluate the consequences to Workington and its surroundings of such an abrupt change in the transport possibilities, but because it presents a rare case study of where road trips require more time and expense than trips by other modes. Days after the floods, a temporary footbridge was erected by the army allowing pedestrian flows between the north and south banks of the river. A temporary station, Workington North, was opened on 30th November served by a free hourly shuttle train service between Maryport and Workington stations using the only bridge to escape major damage in the flooding. Thus within two and a half weeks of the damage and destruction of all the foot and road bridges connecting communities on either side of the river, people could walk, push their bicycles or use the free train service to reach the other side.